NDOPF20 Prayer Guide Draft4 WM&JC
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1 Na#onal Day of Prayer and Fas#ng Saturday, 22 February 2020 Welcome Welcome to the ‘House of God’ which may be a public building, church hall or any venue where you are meeting today. We welcome those who are joining us in your own church, prayer group or online via the webcast. We also welcome those who are joining us from other countries. Together in God we are making a difference. Today is a National Day of Prayer and Fasting - a day to deny ourselves and delight in God. Today is a day to glorify our FATHER in Heaven who gave His only Son that the world might be saved. JESUS the Son of the FATHER prayed for us, JESUS prayed for the Church, JESUS prayed for Jerusalem and JESUS prayed for the world. We are here to follow JESUS’ example, “Who was raised to life and who is at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us”. Romans 8:34. We are here today to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and to intercede for Australia for an awakening to the love of the FATHER and His Son JESUS, who is the radiance of the Glory of God. We are also going to pray for those in authority as instructed in Timothy: those in authority in our churches - our Christian leaders, our community leaders and our political and civic leaders. In Session 3 we will pray for the Return of the Prodigals and the restoration of families as found in Malachi 4:6. Paul, the Apostle, says in Ephesians 3:14, “For this reason I kneel before the FATHER, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” There are families both in heaven and on earth because our God is a family God and he wants all his children to come home. The Governor General will officiate at a Thanksgiving & Remembrance Service at 2PM for those who served the community and fought the fires in our catastrophic summer. We need to remember those who gave their lives fighting the fires and give thanks for the many miraculous escapes that occurred. We will be also be praying for the people of Australia to believe in JESUS CHRIST, in answer to the prayer of JESUS found in John 17:21. We will be dividing our prayers today into six sections (found below) which we will pray through during the day. We invite you to join us. Table of Contents Introduc#on p. 3 Execuve Summary p. 4 1. Adora#on, Worship, ThanKsgiving and Repentance p. 5 2. Pray for More Rain, Bushfires & Those Affected + Coronavirus p. 6 3. Pray for Return of Prodigals p. 7 4. Pray for Leaders – Church, Community & Government p. 8 5. Remembrance Service with Governor General + Communion p. 16 6. Declaraon of the Glory of God through JESUS p. 17 7. Prayer and Faith Fact Sheet p. 18 8. The Australia We Live to See p. 20 9. History & Vision of the Na#onal Day of Prayer and Fas#ng p. 21 10.Donang to Naonal Day of Prayer and Fasng p. 23 11.Na#onal Day of Prayer and Fas#ng Execuve Team p. 24 12.Sponsors and Contributors p. 26 2 3 Na#onal Day of Prayer and Fas#ng Saturday, 22 February 2020 Introduc#on Welcome to the wonderful experience of walking with God in prayer for our nation. True intercession is finding out what is on the heart of God and praying it into being. Our desire this year is to see what is on God’s heart for our nation to become a reality here on earth. The Bible gives us the picture of God’s heart. This year the theme for the National Day of Prayer and Fasting for 2020 is “Together for the Glory of God”. Inspired by Romans 15:6, “Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” One of our objectives on the day is to raise up Next Gen prayer leaders. We are defining Next Gen leaders as anyone under 35 years of age. This includes children and so we encourage people to allow the children to pray and lead - Matt 18:3. Today we are praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that everyone can get a revelation of the glory of God through JESUS and can be empowered to share the good news of JESUS with others. The foundational goal of the National Day of Prayer and Fasting is ‘Revival and Transforma#on for Australia’, for churches to grow and for people to find Christ as their Lord and Saviour. We must begin this endeavour in prayer, hence the reason we are calling the nation to come together to pray and fast on Saturday, 22 February 2020. You are then invited to partner with Youth For Christ in 40 days of prayer and fasting for the lost boys of our nation from Wednesday 26 February – 5 April 2020. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says: “I urge, then, first of all, that peJJons, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” It is time to see this verse come into reality for our nation! The simple fact is that if each church- attending believer brought one person to Christ in one year and discipled them we could double the Australian church in one year. At that rate, we could win Australia for Christ in 4 years! Exponential growth is powerful. The purpose of this prayer guide is to give you a basic outline and help guide your prayers on the day. Of utmost importance though, is that as a group you take time to listen to what is on God’s heart for our nation and your region and to pray that into being. Feel free to make any adjustments you need to make. You don’t have to pray every prayer or cover every point. The Prayer Guide, as its title says, is just a Guide. To observe the day, church leaders are invited to collaborate with other churches and church leaders from different denominations and so fulfil the words of Jesus found in John 17:21. “I pray that they will be one, just as you and I are one… so that the world will believe…” A key part of our prayer time is ‘extravagant worship’, that is, worship focused on the greatness of God, God’s authority, and the fact that God rules and reigns. We start the National Day of Prayer & Fasting with thanksgiving and end the day by joining together in a Declaration of the Glory of God through Jesus. To allocate time during this 6-hour period we encourage you to make a rough allocation of one third prayer, one third worship and one third scripture reading or sharing around the Word of God. We would appreciate if you could share any insights or testimonies from your time of prayer so that we can keep a record of what God is doing in our nation. Please email these to: [email protected] Most of all prayer is an exciting journey with God. We would encourage you to develop a lifestyle of prayer and intercession. God bless you as you pray. 4 Commissioner James Condon, Warwick Marsh, Ps Peter WalKer, Wesley LeaKe, Ps RebeKah Milne, Dr Tim O’Neill, Andrew Scarborough, Kym Farnick, John Delgado and Anjali Abbot. National Day of Prayer and Fasting Executive Team For more information visit the website www.nationaldayofprayer.org.au 5 Execuve Summary - Na#onal Day of Prayer and Fas#ng Our theme for the day is “Together for the Glory of God”. The theme scripture for 2020 is Romans 15:16, “Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our objective is to encourage the Next Gen in prayer and leadership. (Anyone under 35 years + encourage children’s leadership: Matt 18:3.) We also want to pray for the drought, the bushfires and those affected. The purpose of the National Day of Prayer & Fasting is Revival and Transformation for Australia, for churches to grow and millions of people to find the love of our Father. 1. Adora#on, Worship, ThanKsgiving & Repentance The first session begins by saying the Lord’s Prayer together, Matt 6:9-18. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3 “We enter his gates with Thanksgiving”, Psalm 100:4. We also ask you to honour Indigenous leaders. Ask them to be part of the day if possible: Romans 12:10. Pray for the persecuted, Hebrews13:3, Pray a blessing over Jerusalem and Israel. Psalm 122:6 Let us also begin the day in personal repentance as this is also a National Day of Repentance. Then progress on to the broader issues. 2. Pray for More Rain & Quenching of Fires + Help for those Affected + Coronavirus We want to continue to pray for the full breaking of the drought in our nation. Some rain has fallen but we need 6 months of above average rainfall to really see the drought break across the whole nation.